Understanding the nature of desire

I clearly understand the havoc caused by the senses of sight, hearing, smelling, tasting and touch. What shall I do with these repetitive enjoyments? Even after a thousand years of their enjoyment, no one is really satisfied.
(p. 492)

Cravings destroy wisdom. Lost in satisfying sensual appetites, life ebbs away fast. The mind falls into the blind well of sense-pleasure.
(p. 287)

Individuality (jivahood) exists only as long as desire for pleasure lasts.
(p. 475)

The self being one and undivided, there is nothing else worth attaining or desiring.
(p. 142)

... instead of entertaining the notion of bondage and that of liberation, abandon all cravings and through wisdom and dispassion, bring about the cessation of the mind. If even the wish "May I be liberated" arises within you, the mind is revived {and embodiment is ensured}.
(pp. 296-297)

Only as long as one believes in objective existence does desire arise! ... Recognition of "objects" gives rise to desire. Non-recognition of objects ends desire. When desire ends, the jiva drops its self-limitation. The great man therefore abandons all thoughts concerning what has been experienced and what has not been experienced.
(p. 481)

The desire that arises in the course of one's natural functions devoid of craving is that of a liberated sage. But that desire which is bound up with craving for external objects is conducive to bondage. However, when all ego-based notions have ceased in one's heart, the attention that is directed naturally is also the nature of liberated sage. That which is afflicted by contact with external objects is the craving conducive to bondage; the non-volitional desire which is unaffected by any object is liberation. That desire which existed even before contact with the objects, exists even now and for ever: it is natural, therefore sorrowless and free from impurity. Such a desire is regarded by the wise as free from bondage.
(p. 220)

©1999 by Deb Platt